Religion and the Book in Early Modern England, by Evenden and Freeman

CITATION: Evenden, Elizabeth, and Freeman, Thomas S. Religion and the Book in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print.
Understanding

• Question: How was Acts and Monuments researched and printed?
• Answer: Through a trans-continental network of religious and economic affiliations centered on John Day and John Foxe.
• Method: Through historical and bibliographic correlations, Evenden and Freeman can date and contextualize most developments in the proto-history of Acts and Monuments, then compare that development with later editions.
• Assumptions: Several of Evenden and Freeman's interpretations hinge on the correlation of events without necessarily defining a path between them. See Sent. (214-5). Furthermore, in some questions of degree, Evenden and Freeman split the difference between--presumably reliable--secondary sources.
• Sententiae: "The event, however, that had the biggeste impact on the illustrations of the second edition was the publication of the papal bull Regnans in excelsis  in February 1570, which excommunicated Elizabeth and released her subjects from their allegiance to the queen. There can be little doubt that the section added at the end of the first volume of the second edition was a response to Pius V's recently articulated claims of plenary authority over the English Church. This section was probably the last of the edition to be printed. Furthermore there is every indication that it was compiled in considerable haste. The pagination for the section is not irregular -- it is non-existant. Furthermore, the last page before this section is page 922, while the second volume commences with page 923." (214-5)
  "Phrases such as 'lavishly illustrated' and 'extensively illustrated' used to describe the 'Book of Martyrs' suffer from the disadvantage of being inexact... In the first edition there are 53 illustrations with 57 occurrences; in the second edition there are 105 illustrations with 149 occurrences. In the third edition the number of woodcuts increases slightly to 107, with 150 occurrences, while the 1583 edition has the lowest number of actual illustrations, 100, but there are 153 occurrences." (204-5)
  "Greenberg estimates that 'illustrations boost[ed] the cost [of Acts and Monuments] by 100 percent' (Greenberg, 'Community of Texts', p. 708). Greenberg does not give a source for her assertion, but she is almost certaintly drawing this from Tessa Watt, who mantained that the expense involved in hiring illustrators ''was reflected in the oubling of the normal prices when a book was illustrated; a practice sanctioned by a Stationers' Company ordinance of 1598'. Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1560-1640 (Cambridge, 1991) p. 147. First of all, it should be noted that Greenberg is taking an observation made about cheap print and applying it to an expensive volume, whose economics were necessarily quite different. Watts does not make this critical distinction, either. Watts cites Francis R. Johnson's article, 'Notes an English Retail Book-prices, 1550-1640', The Library, 5th series, 2 (1950), pp. 84 and 90. However, Johnson is describing an ordinance of 1598 which regulated the maximum price that could be charged per sheet. This price was determined by the amount of type on a page. Simply because woodcut pictures, which obviously reduced the amount of type on a page, were not of uniform size, they could therefore not be easily regulated and so illustrated books were exempted from this ordinance. Thus Watts is in error by stating that a doubling of illustrated book prices was sanctioned by this ordinance; in actual fact, the ordinance did not affect illustrated books at all. Furthermore, Johnson actually states that 'the average illustrated book was priced 75-100 per cent higher than other books of the same number of sheets': Johnson, 'English Retail Book-prices', p.90 (our emphasis). Apart from the fact that 75-100 per cent is not the same as 100 per cent, the question is, what is th 'average illustrated book'? Clearly, the ordinance was aimed at cheap print and, equally clearly, the sample books mentioned in Johnson's article are predominantly cheap books. Of course an illustration would dramatically increase the price of a small, inexpensive book because the other costs involved would not be that high. Equally clearly, if the book was a large, expensive book, such as the Acts and Monuments, illustrations would certainly increase the price but they would not necessarily double it." ([footnote 16] 190-191)

Overstanding

• Assessment: I'm going to have to come back to this book time and again, I anticipate. Evenden and Freeman synthesize an incredible amount of secondary research surrounding Acts and Monuments, sometimes stripping away received knowledge. Specifically, their treatment of the price of print illustrations (above) is awesome, and I'm really grateful I read the footnotes. I'll probably mine all of these footnotes before exams are through.
• Synthesis: Evenden and Freemen respond at length to John King's treatment of Book of Martyrs, turning from the sociology of the text (and all the accompanying overtones of Chartier / McKenzie) to its research and print history. I'm still hammering out the significance of this broader shift, but one specific point of comparison draws out the difference between Evenden & Freeman vis-a-vis King. King reiterates the finding, popular in the wake of Ingram and Luborsky, that illustrations were commonly re-used. But Evenden and Freeman take pains to enumerate print images that could not have more than one use (202). This correction is part of their commitment to understanding economic and social networks surrounding books, specifically, explaining large folios (like Acts and Monuments) as prestige projects enabled by early monopolies and supported by patronage.
• Application: First, Evenden and Freeman have set the standard for all early modern bibliographies. Second, this book has opened up the question of ililustrated price to new inquiry, especially along a research path that breaks from the conceit of an "average illustrated book." Third, this book suggests an alternative to my prior conception of re-used illustrations. The natural corrolary on re-use is prestige. Large illustrated folios maintained their prestige (out of reverence to patrons, or to the project itself) with utterly unique woodcuts: no museum hangs stock images, no matter how cheap.